Third baseman Travis Shaw slugged the first two home runs of his major league career and had four RBIs as the Boston Red Sox overcame another shaky start from Joe Kelly in an 11-7 win over the Tampa...

Claremont high school to add security cameras

CLAREMONT — The committee overseeing the renovation of Stevens High School voted Wednesday to spend money from the contingency fund on new security measures for the high school building.

The $42,626 approved by the committee will be used to add video cameras inside the building, to monitor commons areas and hallways, said David Putnam, chairman of the renovation committee.

The week before, the committee had approved spending $62,488 on planned security measures that includes exterior cameras at every entrance, alarms on every door and a new access system that requires swipe cards, Putnam said.

During that vote some committee members asked that cameras be added to the interior as well, prompting Wednesday’s vote, he said.

“It provides security for covering a few different instances as students are in the hallways, there are times when altercations take place, so many times the administration has a hard time sorting out the details,” Putnam said, the cameras can record fights in the hallways or common areas. The recordings from the cameras will be stored for 30 days, he said.

Cameras are not being installed in classrooms because that is not appropriate, he said.

The interior cameras would also help in instances when there is an unauthorized person inside, he said.

“It’s primarily to provide a watchful eye on what goes on inside the building and the hallways and where people gather,” Putnam said.

The $12.5 million renovation project had $50,000 budgeted for security measures, Putnam said.

The extra money spent on security is coming from the contingency fund, but was built into the budget, Putnam said, mostly to handle unexpected costs often found in demolition.

The contingency fund started at $400,000 and is not at $255,281.

Putnam said the renovation project is about 40 percent completed. The committee expects the contingency fund will be ample for any other unanticipated costs ahead, he said.